Unwinding Time
by sTk
Summary: L has become interested in the Doctor. Time travel should not exist, but it does. He has found a recording from 1969 and interviews a man who has seen him. The story will contain both the 10th and 11th Doctor. What does L really want? To control time? o.
1. Chapter 1

"He arrived. It was flashy, you should have seen it...err..._heard_...it."

Before L sat a man. He wore a dusty old jacket, and ripped green trousers. Green trousers. It irked L that neon green trousers existed. It irked L more that a man _wearing_ neon green trousers existed. It wasn't that the man was strange, he wasn't particulary odd looking, he was just a man. In fact there was nothing at all special about him. Or odd. He was as normal as one could determine from the senses. He never would have been a child at Wammy's House nor even a good school, in L's opinion, but he did have information the L needed. But it wasn't exactly for a new case at all. Or an old one.

"Heard? What sound was this?" said L, cocking his head to the side, examining the man. He noticed small flakes of dandruff on the man's coat. Thankfully Watari always took care of his hair. The washing of it, not the styling.

"Well it's hard to explain," the man began, almost standing before he was pushed back into his seat by the peering L.

"Do or do not, there is no try!" L has placed his finger on the man's nose, and was wiggling it with a strange kind of manic joy, which didn't appear on his face only the finger which rotated more than a microwave oven.

Upon seeing this Watari gave a sigh. He should have never shown him "The Empire Strikes Back."

"Oi guv. Is this kid for real or is always a smarmy little shi-"

What happened next to the rude man was very unexpected.

"If you'd want to leave the room you'll do well to tell us _exactly_ everything you heard and saw?" That was Watari.

*click*

That was Watari cocking a loaded gun.

"The Makarov?" L hadn't turned round to see Watari, or the gun, but he knew instantly from the sound what type of gun it was. "Watari," he turned to his friend, his finger still stuck on the man's nose. "Isn't the Tokarev more reliable? However please regrain from shooting the man at this moment in time." He turned back to the man, pressing the finger more until it started to hurt his own finger, nevermind the man's nose. "I'm sorry. These forms of interrogation never work and blood is terribly hard for a ten year old boy and a sixty four year old man with rheamatoid artheritis to get out of the carpets." Like a puppet, he turned once more, all strings functional. "We should get metal floors Watari"

Meanwhile, the man sitting there was sweating all the more. It was insane. A little kid and an old man had chucked him in a van, blindfolded him and then brung him up to a high floor on the elevator [he knew the floor was higher simply due to the amount of time spent in the elevator. It was infact the second floor, but tricks never crossed his mind.] Buckets of relief poured out of him even more when he saw Watari putting the gun away.

"Now the noise, what does it sound like? You were going to tell me unless you want to see the gun again."

Watari smiled to himself. He even let out a little giggle. L was certainly developing an attitude much like his own when he was younger. Feisty. Even if it mellowed out in later years.

The man had became jittery on the notion of being shot so he continued, quickly. "It's hard to describe." His eyes darted to L, looking for recognition or a strange kind of help, but he only found a pair of blank eyes staring back at him. It was creepy enough to make his brain tick. "Kind of like a plane or a train, or both," he shouted. "Yes. Both!" Just for good measure he even attempted to imitate the sound which also gave no reaction from L on the outside. But on the inside that very sound was logged and recorded.

"Did it strike you odd that this box was making a sound?"

The man laughed, patting his legs. "Of course not! You never know what's happening in them. I seen one of them that sold coffee so I just put it down to a radio or something."

"A Police Box that sold coffee?"

As soon as the man nodded L had turned towards Watari, who also nodded knowing exactly what was needed. L wanted one. More funds wasted again.

"But it was all fine until he stepped out."

"He? A man was in the box?" L bit his thumb, smiling. He already knew the answer he just liked asking the questions.

The man nodded as the room became shrouded in darkness.

"Watch," L prodded the man's nose once more, turning him to the direction of an illuminated screen, of which a recording was playing.

On the screen was a man. He was fairly handsome but looked somewhat geeky wearing thick black glasses and messy hair. The man was having a conversation with someone, who wasn't there in the room.

_"I'm a time traveller, or I was."_

"He hasn't aged a day! Or washed. He's wearing the same clothes.

_"I'm stuck. In 1969." _And in 1969 that technology couldn't exist.

_"We're stuck!" _He was cut off by a woman. A beautiful black girl with an engish accent who was obviously perturbed by the situation. _"All of space and time he promised me, now I've got a job in a shop! I've gotta support him!" _Her name was Martha, as clarified by the man in the recording.

"Never seen her before though. The woman that stepped out with him was as ginger as my Irn-Bru sunshine. Though, if it were her I may have introduced myself -"

"Watari. Get him out"

Watari, grabbed the man with one hand and proceeded to drag him out of the room. He struggled and struggled but Watari, even for his age, could still overpower the younger man. He put on a cold face and whispered the words: "You can walk or I'll shoot your kneecaps and you can limp. Your choice."

The man screamed and went running out of the building, taking the stairs. Fear was a powerful weapon.

**_People don't understand time. It's complicated. Very complicated. People assume that time is a strict progressionof cause to effect, but actually, from a nonlinear non-subjective viewpoint its more like a big bowl of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey... stuff._**

**_They've taken the big blue box. The angels have the phone box. Creatures from another world. Only when you see them. The lonely assassins they used to be called. No one quite knows where they came from but they're as old as the universe, or very nearly, and they have survied this long because they have the most perfect defense system ever evolved. They are Quantum-Locked. They don't exist when they are being observed but the moment they are seen by any other living creature they freeze into rock. No choice, it's a fact of their biology. They literally turn to stone._**

It was impossible.  
It _should_ be impossible.

But it was real. Oh, it was real. It had to be.

"Watari," L said, thumb still poised even more so upon listening to the recording for the seventy-sixth time and the first time since it was shown to be true.

"Yes L?" he spoke, his calm voice soothing. They both knew what was going to happen now, and both of them were eager. The Inventor and the Detective.

"I'll need to find that blue box, and him."

L pointed his finger at the screen, pausing the image.

"The Doctor."


	2. Chapter 2

"So where are we headed for now, El Doctorio?"

"Donna, just because we spent a week in Spain doesn't mean you have to butcher the Spanish language," argued the Doctor. It was one of his more favoured languages, next to Old Scots. 

The Doctor and Donna Noble. They were quite a pair. One a timelord currently in his tenth regeneration and the other a human woman who was just his companion. Well, she was a bit more than human but that's beside the point.

"Fine," she puffed, slamming her hands down on one of the consoles in a strop.

"And Doctorio? They'll think I'm some strange...lovesick," he paused, trying to find the word. "Gigolo or something!" His face was awash with the terror his own thoughts had committed to his mind. He shrugged it off, remembering what got him into this conversation in the first place. "El Doctor. Doctor. Doctor is universal," he smiled at her. "Mostly"

"Right. Thanks for the lesson, now were are we going?" she sat down on the old comfy chair they had picked up on a travel. "Rome?" Her eyes lit up as she said it, but couldn't think of anything else and added "Some relaxation planet?"

"Texas."

Oh it was cold.

"Texas?" 

And she didn't like cold. Too definitive, no room for leeway. 

"Texas." 

No room for Rome.

"Texas Six, to be precise," he flicked a switch on the Tardis, checking the temperature. It was a little stuffy lately.

"Aliens named a planet Texas?" screamed Donna. It was unthinkable. She imagined little green men wearing cowboy hats, even if she knew most aliens weren't little green men. She'd seen them. A small percentage of them but she had _seen_ them.

"Oh yes," laughed the Doctor. It was even humorous to him, but he had discovered the planet's existence a long time ago.

"And they weren't alien Texans?" she continued.

"Oh no they were alien Texans. Just not alien American Texans."

Donna's head collapsed into her hands. It was too much for her brain to handle.

"I don't think they even understand American," mused the Doctor with a dry smile. 

"They always said_ he _was mixed with aliens!" screamed Donna again, rising from the chair. 

"They _weren't_ even Elvis Presley, Donna Noble." he rested a hand on her shoulder. She sat down again.

"Well this is going to be_ fun_," she huffed under her breath. Fun for the Doctor, life impending doom for Donna. Mostly.

The Doctor's eyes moved over the screen. The temperature was normal, but he was sure it had fluxated before. It was warm, and he'd be more likely to tell than Donna would. He turned and seen her face in misery. He decided to cheer her up a little.

"But it is actually a relaxation planet," he started, sitting down next to her. Hugging her from the side. "You can sit down, relax. I can enjoy the differences. Besides it's the last one off the list. I've been to the other two Texas'."

"Two? Isn't Texas Six the sixth Texas"

"Texas Six is the second Texas. Texas U.S.A and Texas Four are the other ones I've been to," he smiled cheekily. "Ahh, prohibition in Texas. Those were the days!"

"What happened to the other four?"

"Donna, just because they've got numbers doesn't mean there has to be six of them. The Texans were a funny species, they only liked the numbers four and six."

"I wish I never asked," she murmurred, quite seriously.

"So if they ask, you're Donna Six and I'm Doctor Four, right? They're slightly hostile." He thought he may as well go with the fourth number, he did look younger than her.

"I said, I wish I never asked," she spoke with a fire in her eye at the Doctor. Hostile and Donna didn't _want _to mix, in her mind.

"On second thought, Donna, just don't say anything," he added with a gleam. He knew her. 

"I SAID! I WISH I," she screamed, intaking more breath for something louder, "NEVER ASKED!"

As she screamed her loudest scream, a note even the Doctor found irritating, the Tardis rocked.

But she couldn't have done that. Although it did cross his mind even just for a second.

"Just some space turbulence," he started, standing up. "I think." He never could be sure. He almost dashed for the scanner, hoping to see something.

"I hope they didn't blow up Texas Four," he moaned in agony. It was a nice planet.

"Why would they?"

"Oh. Didn't I tell you?" he gulped. "They're at war." 

Donna's eyes went blank. She didn't feel the urge to scream anymore, she just felt the urge to hit something and the Doctor was closest and she would have but she didn't have the energy to move. Even when she considered moving, she stood up and was thrown back down again.

The Tardis had landed.

"We're here!" There was almost a bit of musical excitement in his voice. Are you ready Donna Noble? he smiled hitting the button for the viewscreen. "This is Texas Six!"

"Looks like Japan," said Donna looking at the viewscreen which looked slightly glassy, as if being looked at through something else.

There were tall buildings and neon lights. Japanese words littered the various screens that passers by were watching. The passers by were all clearly asian but the Doctor knew instantly the majority of them were Japanese.

"It is Japan" He couldn't understand it. It didn't make sense.

"Texas Six is in Japan?" she geniunly asked.

"No, Donna," his eyes widened. "It's not."

The passers by changed. They began to run, run into all the shops and homes that surrounded the area. A few even banged on the Tardis before running for cover elsewhere. But there was no gunfire. Nothing seemed to provoke it.

The Doctor stepped forward to the screen, hoping to see something else. Some clue as to why they were here.

He slowly saw soldiers marching. They paused at a large screen on a black building which clicked on and showed two humans on it. A man stood at the front on the screen, in glasses and a suit, while another, with brownish hair, was sat on a throne behind him, sipping a glass of wine.

"Japan." the voice boomed. "God is smiling on you today. You have committed no criminal acts and therefore no one has been scheduled to die. If you find a criminal, kill on sight. Long live Kira"

The soldiers, like drones, saluted the screen, repeating the phrase "Long live Kira!" who seemed to be the man in the Throne, but the Doctor couldn't tell.

"Kira?" he asked himself, hoping to find some answer in his many years.

"Who?" Donna asked, not having heard the soldier's chants.

"Kira," he answered, not putting much thought into it.

"Aww, that's such a lovely name," smiled Donna. "When I have a kid, and being a woman I may one day, I might call it Kira."

"It's the Japanese for killer," he remembered.

"Well my daughter'll be a bull terrier!" she torted, moving closer to him.

"Donna. You don't, don't, want to mate with a Glifogg. Promise me you'll never do it." He said the words but there was nothing behind them. It was almost as if his mind was thinking one thing and saying another.

"A what?" She had never heard of a Glifogg.

"It's the closest thing to a bull terrier. Eight feet tall, snarls, bad breath. They even have little collars with ickle little bells" The Doctor would usually have smiled upon saying it but nothing crossed his face but intense thought. And it didn't go unnoticed. 

"What's wrong?" she asked, placing her hand on his back affectionately.

"The Tardis says this is 2018. Earth or Japan didn't have a dictatorship in 2018, and not one that killed people on a whim. Even criminals. It doesn't feel right Donna. This world doesn't feel safe."

He opened the Tardis door, slowly, and peeked out. They were inside a shop, a bookshop to be precise. It was full of people but they hadn't noticed him or the Tardis. He had already cloaked it when he decided upon Texas Six. He darted into the history section and picked up a copy of "Kira's Kingdom: A timeline of the history of God."

He spoke to himself while entering back into the Tardis, unnoticed. He closed the door and opened the book, flicking through it quickly looking for something. He came across one date in particular. November 5, 2004. The day God vanquished the Devil.

"Look's like we're going back to 2004, Donna!"


	3. Chapter 3

November 5th 2004  
0400 hours.

L's fingers tapped away at the keyboard infront of him. His eyes darted across the gigantic screens, analysing everything that came before him. Past cases flashed by of criminals long deceased, criminals killed by Kira. _By Light._  
It was hard to admit but it was obviously true. He knew it in his heart [of all places, he had at times been described as heartless].

_Status: Deceased_  
_Status: Deceased_  
_Status: Deceased_

Unsolved cases with leads all gone. All dead. They would most likely never be solved unless he had time to find new sources of information. But even then it would be difficult.

_Status: Deceased_  
_Status: Deceased_  
_Status: Deceased_

Soon he would be joining them. Somehow he felt it. There was no way to prove Light was really Kira, even if he knew it. Of course he would lie, hoping for his foe to trip up but Light was too cunning. _Light was heartless._  
Almost like L. But very much alive.

_Status: Deceased_  
_Status: Deceased_  
_Status: Deceased_

L's eyes examined the data of the cases, even if he wasn't paying attention he took it in. His mind wandered, hoping to finish a case before he was killed.

_Status: Deceased_  
_Status: Deceased_  
_Status: Deceased_

Light would be caught, just not by himself. The moment L's heart stopped it would trigger a device sent to Wammy's House. If L or Watari did not respond then they would know that he was dead and someone would have to step in as L. His death would prove Light was Kira. It had to.

_Status: Deceased_  
_Status: Deceased_  
_Status: **Unknown**_

L's head jumped up at lightning speed. If it wasn't connected to his spine it would have flown off.  
One person was very much alive as only one person was unknown.  
He clicked the file, knowing all too well the name that would pop up.

The Doctor.

Everything L had found over the years was here. Names, places, accomplices it was all here. The time traveller he never found. The time traveller he never would find.

"You should get some rest," spoke a man in the distance. A tray rattled as it set down on the table beside him. L sniffed at it recognising the flavour. Tea. Earl Grey.

"Watari," he started, "I will get some rest when I'm ready." He smiled genuinly. "_Or dead_," he thought as his eyes drooped and he slowly began to drift off.

Minutes passed, which seemed more like seconds, and Watari had returned with a white silk blanket which he quickly wrapped around his boy uttering the words "Keep warm."  
He vanished soon after, most likely, to get some sleep himself, forgetting to turn off the computer monitor. They had more than enough money for the bills afterall.

The monitor was the same as before. Status: Unknown  
But it flickered, it changed.  
A young face appeared on it, a young face but a wise learned face. It smiled as it looked upon the sleeping L, instantly knowing who it must be without ever seeing him before. His face looked around the room, taking in everything, before it was pushed out of the way by an angry redhead causing the monitor to flicker back to it's previous screen.

One thing was sure.

The Tardis had landed.


	4. Chapter 4

"You complete and utter idiot of a woman Donna Noble, you utter buffoon!"

"I AM NOT A BABBOON!" screamed Donna, her face matching her hair colour. "I am a woman and you would do well to remember it. You need me. Men need women! Women don't need men!"

The Doctor paused, sighed and turned round to face the redhead all in an almost clockwork fashion. He kept his teeth hidden, not wanting to seem like an utter prat.  
"Donna," he started but she wasn't having any of it. She just stood there with her eyes almost blowing a hole right through him. Which she would have done if she weren't human.

"I called you an idiot, not an ape." he began, putting on his glasses. "Although you do act a bit primal at times." He muttered with a smile, standing up on his tiptoes to see the viewscreen behind her.

"That's it. I'm staying here, whether you like it or not." Donna began running around the room like a headless chicken.

Another tantrum. It was to be expected these days. But it was more frequent.

"Fine."

"Fine?"she blurted out stopping dead.

"Fine. You do what you want Donna. You could call this a covert operation and you stand out too much."

Her angered face did not flinch an inch.  
She was flabbergasted.

"I'll be back in a tic!" he jumped out the Tardis doors and locked it quickly. A tic was an estimate and not really a true one.

The Doctor sniffed. And again. He touched his nose while looking around his new surroundings.  
The Tardis had landed in a bathroom and it stuck out like a sore thumb around the urinals. "I really will have to get that chameleon circuit fixed one of these days," he thought to himself as he exited the bathroom and soniced the lock with his screwdriver.  
Not that anyone else would be entering the men's room on this level. There were only two humans on it, and both were sleeping.

With screwdriver in tow, the Doctor sneaked along the eerily quiet corridor. He used the screwdriver on the cameras that littered the walls as he passed them, one by one. His image would never appear on them that way. But still it seemed a little too easy to be in the lair of the world's _greatest_ detective and no challenge presenting itself.  
Maybe he was slipping and that's how he really died? "No," he thought to himself. It was something else.

He spied a mass of black fur on a sofa. He inched closer, blinding the last camera on his trip, to see that the fur was hair. The hair of L. He had found him.

The Doctor tossed his head backwards, checking for anything. Alarms. Footsteps. Body Odour. None of it was present, not even L who smelled pleasantly fragrant.

"This is too easy. Even for me."

With a spin of his head, he lifted up the boy on the couch and began to run with him back to the bathroom. And on cue the alarm bells began to sing for the capture of it's foe: The Doctor. It was like L was bugged to the entire system.

Three corridors left until the bathroom. It was still easy. No one had appeared. Yet.  
Their was a clank at the walls. The Doctor spinned his head to find them disappearing. Hidden panels dropped to reveal machine guns protruding from the exterior.

"Don't die. Don't die. Don't die" he shouted to himself as he ran faster than he ever had done in _any_ of his ten previous lives. He ran past the rooms, converse on fire and lightning and other elements as the bullets missed him by centimeters each time.  
And then salvation. The bathroom door.  
With screwdriver in hand he unlocked the lock and ran into the door, slipping onto his back once inside enabling him to sonic the lock shut once more.  
Safety. At last.

He sighed to himself on the cold hard floor. He patted L's head. "I hope you're worth it."

He began reaching into his pocked for the Tardis key when Donna opened the door with a smile on her face.

"Doctor! You're back! Never do that again you-"

She paused, looking at the Doctor with another man in his lap.

She was almost in tears.

"What do you want a boy for when you've got a woman!"

But the anger of Donna Noble was stronger than water.

"Inside! And could you just shut up and let me explain, for once."

She didn't budge an inch, leaving the Doctor to struggle to his feet, clutching his back in pain. Leaving the Doctor with the supposed bad back to pick up L alone.

"Are you gay? Is that it?" she said, tears now flowing freely, rushing back into the Tardis.

The Doctor followed. "Donna. This is L. The book I found describes him as the Devil." He propped him down on a chair. "What we seen before is what happens when he dies. Or something. Something isn't right here and I don't know what it is." He took off his coat noticing a few bullet holes at the bottom that had just missed his groin. "Argh! Can you stitch?"

"So you don't..." Donna began touching before her index fingers together with a strange smile. It was either curious enjoyment at the prospect or she was going to be sick.

"No!" The Doctor had the latter expression.

"Oh, right." she muttered with a smile, picking up his jacket. "I'm a modern woman," she screamed, throwing the jacket back at him. "Stitch your own bloody jacket!"

And through all the arguments, the gunfire and accusations the genius known only as L was still fast asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Sleeping L's do not sleep for long. The boy arose like clockwork, head turning to inspect his surroundings.

"Oh, you're awake," beamed the Doctor, lowering down to L's level. "I'm glad. There's a lot of things we need to talk about besides the inevitable kidnapping I just did." He turned to Donna. "Don't ever tell anyone I did that by the way. They'll think down on me."

"Never mind the nutter," interrupted Donna, crouching down with a cup of tea in hand. "Drink this it'll make you feel better after the SHOCK!"

"Don't scream in my EAR! They're OLD!" shouted the Doctor in Donna's own ear, annoyed.

"Unfortunately it is impossible for me to drink that, although I would like to if it had more sugar."

By this time the boy had hopped onto his feet and began exploring the Tardis.

"How much sugar, luv?" smiled Donna looking for sugar somewhere in the Tardis. The Doctor prompted her pointing to a kitchen room, of sorts, and whispering that it was in the third cupboard on the left.

"I would have needed at least one kilogram"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow.

"Too much?"

"Well," he coughed, standing. "It's just a smidge too much even I can tell you that. Give him two spoonfuls Donna."

The boy sighed loudly, like a child.

"What did you mean, that it would be impossible for you to drink it?" the Doctor said, his mind ticking over possibilites.

"You should know if you are the Doctor I have searched for. Or is this technology even hard for a master of time and space to behold?"

"Timelord. Time. Lord. Lord of time, not master." His mind wandered off thinking of his friend. Even the word was strange to think of him as now. "How did you know? What did you mean?"

A laugh came from the child but it never matched the eyes or the facial movements. The Doctor's face became struck with shock. He should have seen it.

"You're not human."

There was a loud cheer emitted from the boy before it stopped dead, falling onto the ground with a large thud.

"I never programmed it for laughter. I hope it is not too disconcerting?" came L's voice, once again from the body just as cold as it was before.

"A robot" uttered the Doctor, examining the machine boy before him. It was remarkable in every way. It even breathed, even though it was off. A sleep mode.

"The sensors in this building picked your device up when you arrived. A duplicate was necessary to talk with you."

"And the guns?"

"A test, which you did pass with eighty-five percent accurary. Although it would have been closer to full marks if there were no holes in the jacket."

The door of the Tardis opened once more and there stood L and Watari coming from the toilet. Watari held numerious suitcases while L carried one lone long rectangular box. "I know you're here about Kira and the Shinigami in this world. Your future self spoke of it breifly. I had to be sure you were his former and thus all the tests." He eyed Donna's hair and nodded to Watari. "He does indeed have a fetish for redheads. Watari-san is amazing."

The Doctor looked at Donna and back to the duo in front of them. "What just happened?"  
Donna on the otherhand looked at the boy on the floor and the one infront of her, hearing nothing of what went on before but still thinking better than the Doctor was. "I take it he isn't your twin brother then?"

**

* * *

Meanhile in the year 2018**

"I told you he will come, it's all been decided. It's why he left in the first place." A black glove picked up a bright red apple and tossed it backward. "Fetch doggy!" Ryuk hungrily snatched the apple and demolished it within in a second. "Strange, he's unlike the other Shinigami but yet so similar. Still devious, you'll have to watch him Light. He'll kill you one of these days."

Light sighed eating his own apple. "I don't have patience anymore. Not with you and not with L."

"Hold your tongue, boy, or I'll make sure you never use it again." The black gloved man smiled, his slight moustache stretching outward, making him appear even more devilish than Ryuk was. "Now, say my name. I want to hear God say it.

"Yes" Light stopped his eyes burning holes into the other man's. His teeth clenched tight as he spat out the name, a name no God should say. "Master".

* * *

**A/N: This will be on hiatus for at least a few confirmed months, possibly more. Sorry guys. Hope these little twists keeps you guy's thinking till later. Also please post your thoughts on the series as reviews. :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**2018 - Japan**

The monitor infront of Teru Mikami blipped for a second but he caught it. He was meticulous like that, looking, waiting to please his God. Mikami arose from his seat and spoke directly to The Master.

"There was a temporal disturbance a few moments ago. It only lasted a few minutes and the system caught the tailend of it but it was certain. The timecode of his TARDIS matches the one you supplied. The Doctor was here!"

Mikami turned to Light. "Which means L was also here my Lord" Light nodded, motioning for Mikami to sit again.

"You see," beamed The Master. "And you doubted it. Tsk, Tsk."

"The system registered that he _was_ here. Not anymore," spat Light, venom pouring in his every word.

"I don't like your tone, boy."

The Master struck Light on his head knocking him out instantly.

"He _will_ return. He most likely didn't have L with him or understand why your little Empire is the way it is in this time period. So he left to find the boy and return to set things right as usual. Are you quite happy with that?"

Light was still motionless.

"Luckily I don't need your approval."

The Master let out a glorious laugh and tapped Mikami on the shoulder.

"Be a dear and keep me and God here informed of anymore blips, okay?"

He patted the shoulder again before sitting in Light's throne. He smiled, his moustache glistening as he viewed the pristine futuristic Japan. It was like an early Galifrey in some ways, or at least he thought so.

"MASTER!" shouted Mikami, jumping from his seat. "There's another blip"

"Excellent" arose the Master, gently kicking Light's head in effort to stir him. "I told you. Where is he?"

"His TARDIS is materialising right now"

"But where!"

"Right in front of us!"

* * *

**2004 - TARDIS**

"What was that noise?" asked L. "It sounds like an engine of some kind."

"It is," contorted the Doctor, moving rapidly about the TARDIS' controls, checking to see what was wrong. "We're moving."

"Where to?" Donna continued the questioning.

"I don't know yet but when I do," he turned to L, wagging his finger in his face. "You're in for a lot of questions my man!"

"What do you mean you don't know?" asked L again.

"Sometimes she's got a mind of her own." The Doctor swung about, flipping switches. He smiled, then frowned showing his white teeth in disapproval. "I don't like the look of this." He touched a button initiating the viewscreen when the internal lights stopped dead. The passengers of the TARDIS were thrown about from side to side violently again and again. On the viewscreen was nothing but black, deep, darkness.

* * *

**2018 - Japan**

The TARDIS faded into the present timeline slowly, the noise of it's engines seeming amplified in the smaller room.

"Come Doctor. Face me again old friend," bellowed the Master trying to compete with the volume of the TARDIS. "Come out!"

The big blue box came to a halt. A pale hand opened one of the doors. A flash of red hair could be caught as a woman dashed back into the TARDIS.

"Well, where are we?" could be heard faintly from inside the time machine, followed by "I'm not sure." and "I have to do everything myself don't I."

A man poked his head out, his floppy hair bouncing off the door of the TARDIS. His eyes lit up at first at the sight of the Master.

"Oh you. I know you. Well I think I do but it's been a while. A while since you looked like that I mean. Amy!"

"What is it? Did you find out?" said the redhead, peeking out over the man's tweed jacket.

"Yes, we're in Japan. Japan in 2018 to be exact I'd say. I'd know, I've been here before. In one form or another."

"And you are?"

"I suppose the old face you have compared to my rather young face may be causing signs of dementia, Master. You should regenerate more."

"You're not him"

"Oh I am. I'm the madman with the big blue box. The man with the bow-tie. The cool dude. I'm the Doctor. The eleventh incarnation. The man who isn't letting you kill him or L or anyone else in Japan that supposedly deserves it. Understand."

* * *

**TARDIS - Year Unknown**

The lights resumed.

Outside was yet more darkness still.

Watari stirred first. He had landed next to the Doctor who was also making his way onto his feet. L and Donna were nowhere to be found.

**End of Unwinding Time Part One**

* * *

**A/N: Don't worry the story isn't over, all of the chapters currently are just from part one. Part two you shall find in the new year, I just thought I'd post it now, just after the New Year to see if people are still interested. Hopefully you don't mind the inclusion of 11 into this :) The rest of the story will come soonish in the next few months after Uni work is completed.  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**Unwinding Time  
Part Two**

**Japan – 2018  
Three Hours After the Eleventh Doctor's Arrival**

The sound of metal clanked in the tower. Inside was nothing but darkness. But in this darkness two warriors had fought a ferocious battle. A battle that had stood the test of time for many years. Until now.

The bright blue door of the Tardis opened. Candlelight slowly crept in revealing the victor of the bout, the man stepping out of the Tardis.

"If only I could be the supreme being in the whole universe," boomed a voice trained in Received Pronunciation.

The voice of the winner.

The voice of the Master.

His foe, The Doctor, was chained to a wall in the tower, which in turn was part of the Master's newly acquired fortress, one of Kira's recent builds. The command center was a few feet below them, the Tardis had been moved upwards to the Doctor's location in order to taunt him.

There was a flash of blinding light as the Master tossed a key at the Doctor: the Tardis key. He winced in pain as it bounced off his forehead, cutting him again. His face, illuminated by the Master's candle showed the extent of their physical battle. His face was bloody, his nose broken and his right eye was almost fully closed due to the swelling.

"Its sole survivor, it's only constant. The Master Timelord of a Master race. It would be glorious; the stuff dreams are built upon."

While his face showed the scars it was obvious The Master still feared him. Numerous pieces of metal confined him to one painful spot. He struggled, trying with every ounce of life in him to break free but it was futile. He didn't have the strength nor the freedom to apply any pressure.

"But dreams end and they fade as the world moves on. Dreams die."

The Master lowered his knees and peered into the Doctor's face. His eyes examined him thoroughly as if searching for a soul somewhere behind the eyes. He smiled before standing once more.

"Reality is the only constant I have faith in and thus I must turn my dream into a reality. I'll destroy one timeline and recreate it. I'll bridge the parallels with my own and create one unified time of which I will be it's Master. " His eyes seemed more insane in the flame. "And you could join me Doctor, I've always gave you that chance."

"A chance I've always dismissed," he coughed, one of his lungs damaged. "You're mad!"

His voice was strained but still calm. There was nothing he could do and getting upset was only going to make things worse. He tried to frown then remembered the pain even that caused him in this moment.

"No. I'm more sane than I've ever been," said the Master, pausing. Thinking. "Even in your future."

"I'll stop you," his voice was lower than before but still of conviction and determination.

An evil aristocratic laugh echoed around the walls. "You? Take a look at yourself. Your companions are all _tragically_ gone. You're all alone Doctor and in no condition to stop anyone."

"Just wait."

It was chilling. Two words that even made the Master stop for breath. It was still the lingering doubt in his mind. The Doctor was always full of surprises but in this case every variable has been taken account of. The Tardis, the Companions, the Doctor himself. But still it didn't any calm to the Master's old face.

"You can't stop me this time Doctor," blasted the Master, being it all he could come up with. "And even if you tried you only have two more regenerations left. If your precious humanity taught me one truth in this life it's that survival really is best kept for the fittest, and that isn't you."

"I don't intend on regenerating anytime soon. Your problem always begins and ends with me. If you bridge the timelines you'll unleash too many variables. Your self in other timelines, other realities, they'll all converge here. It would only be a Master civil war."

"That's why the moment the timelines converge, my Shinigami friend will write down my name, destroying ever incarnation of myself throughout countless histories."

Suicide?

"But you'll die and you won't regenerate. Timelords can't regenerate from a Shinigami attack," there was worry in the Doctor's voice that he couldn't hide. He still cared for the Master, after all these countless years.

"That's where you're wrong. When the timelines converge there is a gap, a bubble in the void. I'll take your Tardis, thanyou by the way, into it for a few moments and come back to reap this new world and shape it as I see fit. "

The Doctor let out a laugh. It was madness. Even by his standards. "No wonder you got on so well with that Japanese kid, you're rather alike. Both little boys wanting to play God!"

The Master jumped at him, grasping at his throat. "And just like he killed his greatest foe I will too."

He tightened his grip, squeezing the life from the Doctor's working lung, stopping every breath from escaping.

There was silence. The Doctor's eyes rolled back, experiencing the pain.

Then he smiled.  
"I'm… honoured"

"What?"

He released his grip almost instantly and the Doctor gasped for breath.

"I didn't think…" he inhaled deeply. "…you cared"

The Master froze, looking back into the Doctor's eyes, seeing the fight still existing in them. He had to get away. He felt it was like an infection, that looking into his eyes and letting the Doctor see him caused him weakness.

"Pah. You bore me Doctor, more than you know. There's a part of me wanting to keep your incarnations alive, even your alternates, just to taunt them," he pointed outwards, grasping his hand at the air. "Just to show them, and tell them that Finally I bested you, for all eternity."

"Just you wait."

"Oh no my dear Doctor it is you will do the waiting and not very long."

The Master motioned his hand towards the wall opposite the Doctor. From the outside it was still brick but from inside there was nothing. A hidden viewscreen showed Kira's Japan outside, the large-scale military presence engulfing Tokyo.

"You will witness the birth of the Master's shining new world Doctor! And once you do, you die!"

**A/N: Yes, much has happened since the last chapter that is unexplained. The answers will come with time, whenever I find the time to keep writing this :D**


	8. Chapter 8

**Tardis – Year Unknown  
**

Watari's frantic old legs paced around the main room of the TARDIS. He checked three times, all doors were locked shut and there was no sign. L wasn't here.

The Tenth Doctor stood, dusting off his suit. "Everyone allright?" he blasted, loudly, examining the consoles of his ship.

"No. L and your companion, Donna Noble, are missing."

"Missing?"

"When we came to they were nowhere to be found." Watari paused, checking again. "Nowhere that I can see."

"It's a very big ship," smiled the Doctor.

"I noticed." Watari's face was sincere. "But it's doubtful they're in any of the surrounding rooms no matter how large they may be."

"Oh?" the Doctor smiled. "And why's that?"

Watari produced a metallic device from his pocket. It was small and round and it was beeping.

"I took the liberty of placing a tracking signal inside everyone's bodies. This device tracks each of us."

"You did?"

Watari nodded. "And from the location of the signal, after taking out both of our signals, they are in this room but as you can see they are not."

"Oh I like you Watari. Watari! I'm not sure how you did and I'm not sure I want to know how you did but I like you. Watari's your code name, what's your first name? Your real name?"

"Quillish."

"Quillish?" paused the Doctor, frowning slightly. "It's not very English"

"I'm a man of many talents, Doctor."

* * *

**Japan – 2018**

Light chuckled, running his fingers through L's mess of bloodied hair. With every stroke of his hand he dug his fingers deeper into the scalp, inflicting more pain with every push just to hurt the man.

L gave him no satisfaction.

"You know…it's funny isn't it. I never expected this. You and me. Together at the beginning of the end. I fully expected you to die back in 2004, just like you were supposed to."

L and the others had been moved down to the command centre, to keep them as far away as possible from the Doctor. The Master knew Light would need an incentive at this stage of the game to see the plan through to the end.

"But it doesn't matter L. None of it does anymore." He gripped L's hair and peered into his cold eyes.

"Kira," uttered a low voice from L.

"Hmm?" said Light, moving in closer to listen.

"Kira"

"Yes, L!" Light laughed. " I am Kira. Pity you could never prove it"

"Kira"

The smile from Light's face turned to disgust. It was as if L was mocking him.

"Kira."

"Shut it L," spoke Light, calmly, increasing his grip on L's head.

"Kira"

"SHUT UP!" screamed Light, ripping a portion of L's black hair from the scalp it rested on. He breathed, deeply, looking at the lump of mess in his hands. His eyes moved to L, no expression, then to the _silver_ scalp of L.

Silver?

Light threw himself backwards to chants of more "Kira" from the L before him. "A robot? L… you devious bastard." He kicked the android in the skull and it whirred slightly but the continuous chants stopped.

Light pressed a button on the communicator, which the Master had given him, in his ear. "Mikami."

There was no response.

"Mikami, answer me!" he shouted, enraged by the current events.

"Yes, God? How can I serve you?" spoke Mikami calmly as if nothing was wrong.

"The prisoner's… tell me their names."

"But the Master needs them al-"

"I'm your God." Light cut him off, knowing where this was going. "I don't want to write their names down I need to know who is there. I need to know if L is there."

There was a few moments on silence before Mikami answered.

"God, I delivered L to you personally when we found him on the Tardis." He didn't like stating the obvious.

"Was he with the rest?"

"No. It was on a larger inspection of the ship. We found him separately."

Light paused.

"God, may I ask why you are asking me this?"

Light give out a cold laugh that chilled Mikami. "The L _you_ delivered, was not L. It was an android. Search the Tardis again, and these times don't fail me Mikami."

Mikami gulped, signalling a squad to come with him. "Yes, my Lord!"

"Remember the Master does not need you."

* * *

**Tardis – 2018**

"Doctor?" spoke Donna tiredly, as if she had just woken up.

"He isn't here," spoke L, perched on a chair. He jumped down to the floor and then crouched in his usual stance. L was calm, always.

"Where is he then?" she spoke, her voice louder and more worried. The tiredness was gone.

"Not here."

"Yes, but where-"

"Sometimes Donna Noble I don't always express myself properly. I'm sorry. He isn't here and I don't know where he is."

"That's all you had to say you know. You don't have to be cheeky about it," she said smiling to herself for telling him off a bit.

"For that matter I don't know where here is either," said L, looking confused for the first time in a long while.

Donna almost giggled at the look on the poor boy's face but decided on a gentler approach. He kneeled down, touched his hand for him to follow which, in turn, only made him shiver which also drew Donna back in fright. Still, she smiled, trying not to let her uneasiness show and said very slowly as if she were talking to a baby, "We're on the Tardis."

"Yes, we are on the Tardis..."

Donna smiled. Her mission was a success.

"..But are we really?"

She frowned. Her mission was a failure. And for good reason. She was wrong.

"It appears that way. However if we were on the Tardis then I am sure _they_ would have spotted us," said L, pointing to the group with guns patrolling through the Tardis, searching, Mikami taking point.

"They? Who?" she said normally, turning round before shouting, on sight, "JESUS!" and then whispering "JESUS!" as she turned back to L.

The group showed no interest in the commotion. It didn't exist to them.

"How can't they see us?" whispered Donna, slightly on edge.

"Not just see. Every other sense is affected also."

"Thank goodness. If not, I'm sorry, but we'd probably be dead."

"I do not know how they cannot though. I don't have the relevant data on the Doctor to fully comprehend it. But you do."

"I do?" whispered Donna again, taking no notice that she could speak freely without any worry.

"You have known him, he has spoken to you. Does he ever change ships?"

"No he's always had this Tardis."

L cocked his head, thinking. "But has it always looked like this on the inside?"

"No, he's said in the past that he can modify it if he wants to. Just depends on the regeneration I suppose, but I've only ever seen the current Doctor, none of the others."

"Then perhaps the Tardis that I seen back then was also of a different regeneration. If the inside can change perhaps the exterior look can," nodded L, standing and walking up to the console.

"What do you mean?" flustered Donna, following him.

"Look at the pattern at which they move," he pointed to the group of armed patrollers which only half of their bodies could be seen, on the ground. "Some are going downstairs but this Tardis does not have a downstairs, thus they seem to vanish. We are here, but the most logical explanation is that we are displaced with the other Tardis. Two different timelines are sitting on one another, ours if the former so it is out of synch with this world. I may be wrong but I am working with what little science fiction I know. I am new to this concept of time travelling, apart from in theory."

Donna thought the Doctor was confusing enough. "Fine, continue with what you're doing then."

L smiled with glee, like a kid in a candy shop "Oh I do not know what I am doing. I am not doing anything. I have no idea how to mix the timelines. You have more experience with the Tardis than I do." He pointed at Donna and then to the console.

"Oh. Well. We're in deep-"

"Yes, we are." He cut her off, frowning. "I am hoping you were about to use the term trouble but knowing the current decline of the English language in speech these days it is probably unlikely. Can you send a distress signal?"

"I'm not sure," she said, looking at all the different controls and feeling dizzy.

"If you can then the Doctor and Watari will probably receive it wherever they are. Can Tardis' lock on to distress signals."

"I'm not sure." The dizzy feeling was not going away. She felt like she was going to be sick.

"Just like Star Trek! This would be interesting. Donna Noble as Uhura, communications officer!"

"Donna sighed. I'll try, I'll try," she shouted, tapping every button on the Tardis console frantically, hoping one of them would alert the Doctor. Before turning to L, about to state the obvious, before turning back the consoles.


	9. Chapter 9

**Tardis – Year Unknown**

A red light on the Tardis console started to shine intermittently. Every ten seconds it flashed and it did not go unnoticed to Watari.

"Doctor," he said, pointing to the mysterious light.

"Distress beacon," said the Doctor as he eyed it intently before flicking a number of switches.

"L and Miss Noble?"

"Yes. A little addition I added a couple of hundred years ago incase of a fracture. Came in handy."

Watari nodded in approval. The timescale did not worry him; he knew the Doctor was an old being but something caught his eye. Worry on the Timelord's face.

"Is there a problem, Doctor?"

"Well there's nothing more I can do," he pressed a few more buttons and took a reading from the viewer before turning a lever. "We aren't in normal space time at the moment and I can't move the Tardis at present. I've signalled my beacon which should appear on the other Tardis, wherever they are. When they receive it, she'll have to send the request signal which will automatically bring the two Tardis' together in their time. I hope I'm making sense Quil?"

"Just about," joked Watari. He could have never invented something like this, nor understand the mechanics of it, but he had faith in the Doctor.

"It's just a matter of time."

**Tardis – 2018**

"Apparently Kira and the Master have something big planned," said David in a whisper, keeping a watch out for Mikami, as he lit his cigarette. Smoking wasn't permitted for officers, a law implemented by Kira.

"Seems so," hushed Matt, nabbing the lighter back from David. "As long as we keep getting paid I don't really care."

David inhaled the smoke deeply into his lungs before letting it out. "My team were the ones that chained up the Doctor. He didn't put up much of a fight," he said with a hint of chagrin.  
"I wish he did."

"He should be made to suffer if he is an enemy of God!" concluded David as he holstered his pistol. In his opinion there was no one on the ship. No enemies. 

"Thing is, I'm not sure The Master is a _friend_ of our God either."

"How come?"

"Well, Kira's been doing _his_ bidding." Matt's face was overcome with shock. "I overheard something about bringing parallel worlds or some crap here."  
"Think that's got something to do with the new power grid system?."

"Hey, you two!" shouted Mikami as he quickly made his way to their position.

Both the pair saluted to him in a convoluted way. With one hand David made the salute and with the other he dropped the cigarette. Both then stamped their right foot to complete the salute, covering up the evidence in the process.****

"Yes sir!" bellowed the pair in an almost scared fashion. Mikami was the man with God's ear and he had the power to quickly eliminate someone if he deemed it necessary. Even if they weren't committing any offence.

"Did you find L?" he said, not making eye contact with the pair. Simply looking over them, asserting his power over his minions.

"No, there's no one here, sir!" said Matt, David's superior, although some of the other officers thought he was less capable.

"I will alert our God, Kira. Now get back to your original posts, or I shall make sure you are punished by God. Disobedience is punishable…"Mikami paused, looked at the pair and added with a sly smile, "by death."

"Yes sir!" shouted David and Matt as they walked quickly to exit the tardis.

Then he felt something. Mikami felt something on his neck. It was odd. It was like someone was behind him. It was as if someone was breathing on his neck.

He shrugged it off and hurriedly exited the Tardis. He knew all too well that Shinigami were invisible unless you had touched their notebooks. He didn't know L was previously standing behind him, examining him, invisibly safe in a temporally displaced timeline.

"L!" shouted Donna, no longer caring that armed guards were piling out of the Tardis. "There's something happening on the console. I've never seen it before."

L, in a run, jumped on top of the Tardis console and stared at Donna from above. "Yes?" he asked, oblivious to his own strange position. Donna pointed at a blinking button on the console which resided a few inches from L's left foot.

"Interesting."

"What?"

"Donna Noble, it is interesting that we are faced with an illuminated button which is blinking intermittently. It is interesting because Watari has often said I am childlike and like most children when something like a shiny object attracts me I am drawn. This attracts me."

"So we'll press it then," said Donna, her hand poised and lurching over the button. 

"We could," said L, kicking Donna's hand away with his left foot. "But the probability of pressing an unknown red button in a displaced timeline has a fifty percent chance of being catastrophic for us."

"How?" shouted Donna, clutching her hand in pain as if a bear had just grazed it with his teeth. L's foot fighting skills were unmatched.

"We could blow up the ship," he said very calmly as he always did.

Donna's jaw dropped, as did her hand.

"Which could lead to the destruction of everything as this is indeed a ship that can travel through time and space."

She felt like she was going to faint. He was almost as bad as the Doctor.

**Japan – 2018**

"Mikami! Report!" boomed Light aggressively, annoyed that he had been so easily fooled.

"My Lord! I have men still checking but our sweeps ind-"

"Get to the point!" he retorted, banging his hand on the brick wall.**  
**

Mikami shuddered at the thud, taking a moment before he spoke. He had tried to be careful but that wasn't going to work. Being direct was the only way to talk to God.

"L is not on the Tardis. There's no way he could have escaped."

"When it comes to L there is always a damn way!"

"Our records indicate no malfunctions, power outtages or anything that he could have taken advantage of. L doesn't even know how our system's work."

"Don't underestimate him Mikami. I did that once."

Mikami remained silent but he nodded. Anything he said would, more than likely, make the situation worse. Light only stayed calm for so long.

"Leave me Mikami. I'm tired and I think I need some rest before The Master will need me again. Alert me when the Timelord's companions executions are scheduled."

"Ofcourse, my Lord."

Mikami exited the room, shutting the door slowly behind him. As soon as it clicked, terrible noises came from within. The sound of tables being overturned, glass being broken, upon screams of rage. Light's anguish could be heard clearly throughout. It was just as he thought; Light could only stay calm for so long.


	10. Chapter 10

**Tardis - 2018 (Displaced)**

L's foot hovered over the button in such a way that Donna could swear it had a brain of it's own hidden under the flesh. After all the things she had seen, the unexpected was always a possibility. It paused still, almost in thought, weighing up the possibilities. She looked at L, calm, then back to the foot which was uneasy as it began hovering again.

"Do you have a coin Donna?"

"A COIN!" Donna shouted. "You're asking me for a bloody coin to what? Flip it?"

L sighed. "Fifty percent success. Fifty percent failure," he stated, bluntly.

Donna shuffled in her pockets but there was only a yellow jelly baby in it. She held it out, smiling, to L who, in an instant, picked it up and swallowed it without a second thought.

"A jelly baby has two sides! We could have used that! I don't have anything else!"

"Oh. Well," he muttered pressing his foot down hard on the button. He looked up at Donna and smiled. "It is a good thing I know my own stomach."

"That's impossible!" Then she remembered that hardly anything seemed impossible. "At the least! It's not normal is it?"

L smiled, jumping down from the console. "Whoever said I was normal, Donna Noble?"

She opened her mouth to answer but couldn't as the Tardis console started to dissolve. In horror she thought to scream, thinking there was a wrong choice made, as a large blinding light engulfed the pair.

**Japan – 2018**

"What are you waiting for? If you're going to bring your _Master_ race forth get on with it. I'll take them all on!"

The Doctor, even in chains and severely hurt, still could put up a fight.

The Master let out a laugh. "I know you would. But all in good time Doctor. Certain conditions must be met."

"Conditions? What you really mean is you're waiting for something," he searched for the word. "The catalyst for all this."

The Doctor was onto something.

"Correct, Doctor. Keep going." The Master was amused at his foe, knowing full well how alike they were that he would know. But even so, they were vastly different.

"The catalyst has to be something that that is temporal based. Right?" The Master nodded at him. "Good. Let me guess!" The Doctor paused, as the Master raised an eyebrow. That was quick. Without even a quip.

"A flux capacitor!" shouted the Doctor.

There it was.

"You're waiting for a Delorean to show up in 2018 aren't you? Brilliant!"

The Master sighed, turning away to leave. "Such childishness"

"You need my Tardis to escape don't you? To survive." The Master stopped and turned back, intrigued once more. "Which means you can't use it otherwise you'd blow it up and escape in your own Tardis and you, in your time frame, you had a Tardis but where is it. Where is your Tardis?"

The Doctor's mind raced with the various possibilities. There were other forms of Time Travel, other races had different devices but it didn't explain why the Master was missing a Tardis. If he was missing one it was sloppy.

He was never sloppy.

"You're quite correct Doctor. I'll be using the energy from my Tardis to act as _part_ of the catalyst. It's already in place, ready to be destroyed at the flick of a switch."

"_Part of the catalyst_?" added the Doctor, confused. One should have been enough. It could only mean that the Master's was damaged but he couldn't remember it. _Time can be rewritten_ echoed throughout his mind, and while it could, he should have been able to remember it.

What would the other part be? The only energy capable of it was a Tardis but that would mean…

"That's impossible."

"Nothing is impossible."

"But I'm the only Timelord alive."

"Yes you are," added the Master with a grin.

"What have you done? What did you do?"

"I told you I've been working on this for a very long time. Do you remember L, Doctor. ?"

"What Elle?" He had met a few different women called Elle over his many cycles of life but none that seemed relevant.

"You met him during your last regeneration."

"Him?" He couldn't recall meeting a man called Elle, nevermind during his last regeneration. And he _would_ remember. Memories didn't vanish.

"It's an Earth man called L. That would be the letter L Doctor and nothing else."

There was only one person documented that used that letter. A detective during the 21st century but even the Doctor didn't know that much about him. He only learned about, briefly, him during his ninth regeneration while looking for a detective to solve a murder on Earth. But he chose someone else.

"I never met him," he said, confused.

"I didn't say _you_ did," laughed the Master.

It niggled at the Doctor. The laugh. The mocking nature of _that_ laugh, a laugh he had heard before. It was shouting at him he had, in some form, probably as the Master said, during his last regeneration. But every part of his being told him he didn't.

"But when you came here, you told me very assuredly that you weren't going to let me harm L or anyone else, didn't you?

It niggled more. He couldn't remember saying it and even when he tried to think about it he only seen a gap. Even when thinking back to his last regeneration there was nothing but a gap. The Master must have hit him harder than he though.

Only one thing was certain. The Master was being truthful. He had known him that long, every incarnation, that he knew when he, this one, was lying.

"Ever been to Japan in this year, 2018, before?"

"No," mumbled the Doctor, knowing he was being mocked. Knowing that something _had_ happened to him, even if he didn't know what. He had to think it out logically.

He arrived, said all of that, then he was bested by the Master, in physical combat. There were two others in the Tardis, Amy and Rory, and it didn't seem right. They were hardly fighters but they would have helped. It didn't fit together. The Master was skilled in that timeframe but the Doctor felt he had the upper hand.

No.

He _knew_ he would have.

His eyes widened as he examined everything in front of him, all of the data. And only one thing, one piece of information stood out.

The Master needed two Tardis'.

"You stopped me with your Tardis, somehow. I don't know how but you did. It took out some of the energy that won't do for your _bubble_." He didn't understand yet, but his mind raced to find the answer.

"I didn't expect you to be so capable with a sword," he spat, unbuttoning his jacket to reveal a gash on his chest, crudely stitched. "I'm glad you worked it out though. Since the _other_ detective should be arriving soon. Hopefully."

Other detective? L.

"Why? Why is he coming here, I don't understand!" he shouted, hating that part of him (his memory at least) had been taken.

"You remember the Weeping Angels?"

The Doctor nodded.

"Good. You remember making a recording warning your companion about them?"

He nodded again, looking over the Master, wondering where this was going.

"Let's just say I acquired that footage and gave it to someone who had no idea of the reality of time travel."

"L."

"That's right. L. The boy who never knew it was all possible but became enamoured with it. Enamoured by you and the blue box."

"How did you get the recording. I destroyed it, I'm certain." At least he hoped he was certain.

"Ah! That's my little secret Doctor. But I will let you know that you did indeed destroy it. I just got it back. The point is it's all been planned. He'll come here but he won't be alone. You'll be with him, your previous regeneration. He'll arrive with his Tardis too of course and there we have it Doctor. One Tardis for me to escape in, yours, and the other two to bring about your end at my many hands."

Then it hit him.

"Tell me one thing Master. Did your Tardis have full energy when I arrived?"

The Master smiled. "Of course it did. You understand then?"

"You used it on me, you took something from me."

"Very warm Doctor," the Master taunted, eager to see the Doctor finally work it out but his attention was called to his communicator. He had received a message.

"I have a gap whenever I think of my recent past. Of our encounter here, and my regeneration. I can't remember anything." There was only one answer. "You used your Tardis to fracture _me_. _Me!" _

He rattled the chains as much as he could, disturbed. "You took away my self, my past."

"I also planted a false message in your Tardis, telling you some alien, can't remember which, had captured L and he needed your help. For the sake of the galaxy and all that nonsense you adhere to," he groaned, nodding at his communicator and uttering the words thank you.

"Then you sent him away. Fracturing me, _my time_, created two of us. And _two_ Tardis'. You can't blow them up because it would create a temporal paradox," said the Doctor, almost in awe and shock at once. "That would destroy the universe. Taking one of them reverses that."

"Destroying the universe is number two on my list. You're number one and you won't have long to wait. You've just arrived," laughed the Master walking out the door and slamming it shut, not bothering to lock it.

The Doctor lay motionless.

The end was near.


	11. Chapter 11

A cloister bell seemed to ring around the Doctor's mind. It was the same warning sound that would sound in the Tardis when something was wrong. Impending death and the end of the world was just that.

He couldn't move; his will had been shattered. There was no hope of saving the universe in a dash of brilliance and escaping onto the Tardis for a new adventure. Or a holiday. "_Definitely a holiday after this," _he dreamed. _"With Amy and Rory. And maybe River. If she was lucky."_

The dream collapsed when his old eyes caught sight of his chains again.  
A futile fantasy.

The door creaked open.

"Back again to torment me, are you?" he shouted to the door's direction, his eyes unable to see it. "It'll only end up being worse for you when I get out of this. Mark my words. I'll stop you. Even if it means killing you!" he spat with as much conviction as he could muster. He meant it. He could, if there was no other option, save the universe by killing the Master. But in this case it would probably only further destroy the timeline, creating another paradoxical layer to the mix.

"Touchy," smiled a familiar voice entering the room, applying a blue light to the lock on one of the chains and a small kick for good measure. It had been a stressful day after all for him.

"You're not him," uttered the Doctor, now able to move slightly, slowly turning around to face his…

"You? What the hell are you doing here! Get back to your Tardis this instant!"

His former self, the Tenth incarnation, was now inches away from him, loosening more of his restraints. All he could see was teeth, gleaming.

"How do you know about the Tardis?" questioned Ten, stopping for a moment to look into Eleven's eyes.

"Because I'm you, you idiot!" screamed Eleven. "You're me, I'm you. There. We've done the hello's. Now would you kindly get out of here!"

"But I have to save you first," smiled Ten, returning to the restraints, undoing another one.

"Always with the saving, forgetting the grander scale," Eleven rubbed his, now both free, wrists. "How was I ever so idiotic in my last form," he sighed, looking at the exit in front of him.

"I see the grander scale!" argued Ten, this time continuing with the last of the restraints on the legs. "Of course it's odd that we're both here but it's happened before to us, in the past."

"Not like this."

"Oh really?" Ten stood up, rubbing his knees as he did so, laughing. "Let me guess," he paused for effect before adding "Someone wants to kill us?"

Eleven looked into his former eyes. "We're already dead." There were no smiles on his face, just gloom.

"How did I ever become you?" retorted Ten, starting for the door, motioning for Eleven to follow. "It's not normal. We don't talk this way, we never have." He pointed at Eleven with his screwdriver, wiggling it playfully. "We don't give in."

"I'm not you anymore! Deal with it."

Eleven rushed on ahead, recounting the layout of the place.

"I guess not."

"The point is we can't win!" They passed an empty corridor. "You even coming here to get me just wasted time that could have saved us if you'd simply have stayed put!" He heard a slight noise, and stopped. "You're infuriating!" he whispered back at Ten.

"Why? To the first, not the infuriating part. They say I'm charming," he whispered back with a smile.

Eleven made a face at him of pure unbridled displeasure at his company. He looked around, as silently as possible for the source of the noise but there was nothing, and so continued on. His former self had disregarded it and so he had to do. He was on edge more than usual but a full blown apocalypse was known to do that to one's nerves.

But nerves worked both ways. They created fear but they also opened themselves to new ideas. It stopped him dead in his tracks.

"What is it?" asked Ten. "If you're thinking about the noise it was just a-"

"Did you lock your Tardis?"

Ten was offended. "What, of course I locked it."

"Then we have a chance. A slight, slight, impossibly possible chance of coming out of this all right," he began to run, fast. "Keep up me!" he shouted back at Ten who, returning his speed, was very confused.

"What's going on?" Eleven began to take a deeper breath, a thinking breath, when Ten wryly smiled "The short version."

"Spoilsport," laughed Eleven for the first time in what seemed like ages. There was a chance of saving the world. And it _could _work. But there would be a consequence, one he was willing to accept. "Short version: The Master's at his favourite hobby. Trying to kill us. Me. He took you from me, set things in motion that brought us to this point. He's using the energy from two Tardis' to collapse time in order to destroy us and everything that exists, while he survives. He has a Shinigami helping him. A nasty one."

Ten only had one thought jumpt to the forefront of his mind. "Saxon Master?"

"No, it's before he went crazy," he paused, looking sheepish as if he made a mistake infront of a loved one. "Crazier."

"How do we stop him."

"We need to get to his Tardis and disarm the explosives, it has to be close to yours. Did you see anything unusual. Remember he has a-"

"Cloaking device. I know. I remember back then" they turned a corner. They weren't far from his own Tardis now. "But you know too that it wouldn't look unusual if he has that. But that's why - "

"Right. That's why we need to get into your Tardis and scan for it," he stopped for a moment, giving a big grin. "It's so good having an intelligent conversation with yourself! Ooh!"

"Why did you stop?"

"I'm old," he started again, walking down a flight of stairs at half-pace before taking another breather. "Is there anyone in your Tardis?"

"Only Quil?"

"Who? I don't know a… Never mind. Can I use your screwdriver?"

Ten tosses him the screwdriver to which Eleven promptly uses on the communicator in his pocket.

"I don't know if this will work but it's still the Tardis, just differently placed. It should. I hope." He held it to his ear. "Hello. Quil-eh," he holds his palm over the mic part. "What's his – "

"Quillish Wammy"

Eleven mouths a _thanks._ " Quillish Wammy, this is the Doctor. I know I sound different, just go with it. I need you to press a few controls to initiate a scan. I'll pass you over to the Doctor," he, carefully passes it to Ten.

"Other Doctor. There's two now. Don't worry about it. I'm the one you know. Quil, I'm going to need you to-"

As Ten explained the plain to Quillish, Eleven broke off to a nearby window. He surveyed the outside with a glum look crossing his face. Doubt was settling in to his mind. "_There's too many variables,_ he thought. "_It could never be a sure thing. Even if it works the consequence is high."_ He looked back to Ten, feeling his own hearts beat faster. _"One of us would have to die."_


End file.
